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Most users do not even think twice before “liking” a post on Facebook. It is more of a reflexive phenomenon, impulse based, and sympathy based for the poster or appreciation for the post and even as a sign to mark that you’ve read/viewed the post. This attracts the invention of the decade in humor – memes. Out of content screenshots, video/movie stills, crude stick figure sketches and repetitive dialogues provide humor in context and as trolls. So inadvertently, we end up liking a page/group that posted regular laughs, in hopes to see original content on our homepage. Spammers have targeted this trend and are hoodwinking users to liking their ads and spam. While it isn’t as harmful as stealing your credit card, it can be very annoying as well as disruptive.

What do spammers do

Using trending concepts, memes, topics and viral content, spammers will create a page/group that automatically attracts a large crowd to like their page. This works by being the first to bring the popular trend in the form of a page on Facebook. Once the page has enough likes and some time has passed, the page’s name, details and content is changed to reflect the sponsored/spam content they want audience to see.

How users fall for the trap

Users do not release their page has been switched or is now posting content that isn’t relevant to the page anymore. Some even forget liking the page from a while back and when they see the new page/ sponsored content, they suspect it’s just another unblockable advertisement. Thus the user sticks around without unliking the page.

How the spammers earn money

Sponsored links get paid per click on their website. Thus if the spam page is able to deceive people to like their Facebook page, they will accidentally or automatically click on the links that nothing but bloatware content on the web. This is wrong and cheating the user into clicking content, but earns massively for those running the page.

Preventing such a spam

Use a brilliant AdBlocker and use caution before clicking links. Headlines that are usually too vague such as “click here to find out” or “you’ll never believe what happened next” are sure short signs of spam.

Have you noticed any weird links/ pages/ groups on your Facebook that you can’t remember liking spamming your homepage? Let us know in the comments on our official Facebook page, Entreprneuer India

Rustam Singh

Tech reporter.Contact me if you have a truly unique technology related startup looking for a review and coverage, especially a crowd-funded project looking to launch and coverage.